Strong tower series Friend of sinners: He was called a friend of sinners; as a matter of fact He was accused of being a friend of sinners. One day Jesus was sitting with some friends who just happened to be sinners; I tell you if we didn’t have sinners to sit with to talk to we wouldn’t have anybody to talk to, would we? The Bible says “all have sinned”; these guys Jesus was talking to were “tax collectors and [notorious and especially wicked] sinners “ quote, unquote. That is taken from Luke 15:1 from the Amplified version. The next verse says “And the Pharisees and the scribes kept muttering and indignantly complaining, saying, This man accepts and receives and welcomes[preeminently wicked] sinners and eats with them.” These were not ordinary sinners, at least according to the Pharisees as recorded by Luke. They were especially and preeminently wicked sinners. I don’t think I know anyone like that. These guys were pretty bad. And yet Jesus received them as His friends.
I saw some people on motorcycles just a couple of days ago and they looked tough; at least they tried to look tough and in my heart the old Pharisaical nature rose up and I silently judged them; there were two men and two women. They were dressed typical of their breed or so I JUDGED THEM. And their bikes were loud…you know the type. But then I thought where would Jesus be and what would He do if he were here (we were sitting on a ferry crossing a bay)? I think He would have got out of the car and went and talked to them, probably started with a comment like, “hey guys nice bikes”. But it wouldn’t be long before He had their undivided attention as He led them to Himself while explaining the plan of salvation.
Maybe you have a loved one whom many religious people have ignored because of their ungodly and wicked ways. And you have sort of given up on them. Jesus will never give up on them no matter how wicked their lives may be, how socially unacceptable they are. The Pharisees saw just how wicked and sinful this bunch were and yet here was Jesus sitting down with them and having lunch with them. Notice also that these especially wicked people were coming near to Jesus to listen to Him. Yes He accepted and received and welcomed these preeminently wicked sinners even to the point of sitting down to eat with them but He did it so that He could talk with them about their soul’s salvation. We might have to sometimes step out of our comfort zone to win people to Christ but wouldn’t it be worth it? The shepherd in Jesus’ parable found in Luke 15 certainly had to leave his comfort zone in order to find his lost sheep but what rejoicing there was when he found that one lost sheep. Jesus is a Friend of mine!p.s. I don’t recall any record where it says a Pharisee had any friends, I guess they never learned how to make a friend